Title:Retinal Tissue Engineering: Regenerative and Drug Delivery Approaches
Volume: 18
Issue: 5
Author(s): Azadeh Izadyari Aghmiuni, Saeed Heidari Keshel*, Ali Rahmani, Samad Nadri*, Farshid Sefat and Alireza Lashay
Affiliation:
- Medical Nanotechnology Research Center,
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell
Science, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
- Zanjan Metabolic Diseases Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
- Zanjan Pharmaceutical
Nanotechnology Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
Keywords:
Retinal tissue engineering, regeneration, drug delivery, retinal pigment epithelium, retinal diseases, retinal degenerative diseases.
Abstract: In recent decades, the improvement of photoreceptor-cell transplantation has been used as an
effective therapeutic approach to treat retinal degenerative diseases. In this review, the effect of different
factors on the differentiation process and stem cells toward photoreceptors along with cell viability, morphology,
migration, adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation efficiency is discussed. Scientists are researching
to better recognize the reasons for retinal degeneration, as well as discovering novel therapeutic
methods to restore lost vision. In this field, several procedures and treatments in the implantation of stem
cells-derived retinal cells have been explored for clinical trials. However, the number of these clinical
trials is too small to draw sound decisions about whether stem-cell therapies can offer a cure for retinal
diseases. Nevertheless, future research directions have started for patients affected by retinal degeneration
and promising findings have been obtained.